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North Carolina: An Insider on the Hoax of School Choice

By dianeravitch
July 19, 2018 //
5

A few days ago, I posted teacher Stuart Egan’s description of the attack on public schools in North Carolina, which identified the malefactors who are luring kids to charter schools, religious schools, cyber charters, and home schools, driving down public school enrollment to 81%.

Egan received a response from a staff member of the North Carolina Department of Instruction, which is led by Mark Johnson, former TFA who marches to the tune of the Tea Party and has no conscience of his own, no vision for the 81%, no concern about the quality of education in the state’s charter or religious schools. How does TFA find the people who advocate and act so strongly against public schools that enroll the majority of students? Will TFA ever be held accountable for them?

Here is the comment:

“This is so spot on. Everyone should translate ‘choice’ into ‘undermining of public schools’, because that is exactly what it is. The most sickening part is how low-income families and those of children with disabilities have been targeted, cajoled, hoodwinked and bamboozled into believing that choice automatically equates to quality. (Anyone who considers themselves conservative should be outraged at this profound misuse of their tax dollars.)

“Unfortunately, I get to witness this erosion and implosion every day at DPI. I just met another of my colleagues whose job was eliminated by the General Assembly’s draconian cuts and our puppet superintendent’s ‘just following orders’ approach. It was so sad to see this person, who was providing passionate, competent and knowledgeable support to eastern NC schools trying mightily to serve their markedly low-income populations, tossed aside in this ponzi scheme to dangle ‘school choice’ in front of needy families. It’s like eliminating the road crew that is fixing potholes and cracks on I-95 and using the public’s money to build a flimsy expensive two-lane highway right next to it that has no markings, guardrails, speed limits or enforcement (with full kickbacks going to the private paving company). ‘Hey mom and dad — let your kids ride on this shiny new road because you’ll have a choice, and we all know choice is better!’

“EdNC put out an excellent article a few days ago: https://www.ednc.org/2018/07/11/steep-cuts-to-north-carolinas-education-agency-hurt-low-performing-schools-the-most/. It perfectly spells out the absurdity in our agency and our feckless leadership. We’re told ‘shh, be quiet; this is a sensitive time’ for all our colleagues who were laid off, when in reality there should be a loud leader fighting for his folks every step of the way, even if the jobs could not be saved. You see, that’s how the damage really occurs here in our agency — not by vocal or visible action of those who ultimately have to answer to their supervisor every day, month and year, but by the SILENCE and joint inaction of the only ones in the agency who AREN’T supervised. The superintendent has no official boss and writes no annual work plan like the rest of us; instead, he gets a four-year ride and won’t have a whiff of accountability for another two and half years, long after the damage has been done. Meanwhile, scores of good people continue to walk out the door, either voluntarily or involuntarily, and the Public Schools of North Carolina will continue to suffer for it.”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Ethics, Fraud, North Carolina, Privatization, Shame, Teach for America, Virtual Charter Schools, Vouchers

Stuart Egan: Who Is Behind the Assault on Public Education in North Carolina?

By dianeravitch
July 16, 2018 //
4

NBCT High School Teacher Stuart Egan writes here that public school enrollment in North Carolina has dropped to 81%,just as the Tea Party Republicans hoped. As public schools are starved of resources, growing numbers switch to religious schools, charter schools, virtual charters and Home schools.

Who has made this happen, in addition to the Tea Party?

“Consider the following national entities:

*Teach For America
*Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
*Walton Family Foundation
*Eli Broad Foundation
*KIPP Charter Schools
*Democrats For Educational Reform
*Educational Reform Now
*StudentsFirst
*America Succeeds
*50CAN
*American Legislative Exchange Council
*National Heritage Academies
*Charter School USA
*Team CFA
*American Federation for Children

“They are all at play in North Carolina, totally enabled by the powers-that-be in the NC General Assembly and their supportive organizations.”

Think of it: 81% of the students in the state attend public schools, but they don’t matter!

To make matters worse, all the alternatives are worse than a well-funded public school.

North Carolina’s education is slipping into a deep hole. It is funding failure.

Betsy DeVos can add another notch to her belt unless the citizens rise up to save their schools.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Disruption, Education Reform, Failure, Fraud, Funding, North Carolina, Virtual Charter Schools, Vouchers

ECOT and Payoffs to Ohio Politicians: How to Avoid Any Accountability

By dianeravitch
July 16, 2018 //
2

I have posted many times over the years about the giant fraud called the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow in Ohio, or ECOT. Ohio doesn’t permit for-profit charters, yet ECOT was set up–like many “nonprofit charters”–to produce huge profits for its owner, William Lager, who owned companies with which ECOT contracted. Lager opened ECOT in 2001, and it was closed down in January of 2018 after collecting about $1 billion from the state. It was the largest school in the state. Lager gave generous contributions to politicians, mostly to Republicans, and in exchange, his school was never held accountable or audited. After a major expose in the New York Times showing that ECOT had the lowest graduation rate of any school in the nation and that Lager’s related companies were making large profits by providing goods and services to the school, Ohio officials began to take a closer look at ECOT. The major newspapers in Ohio began to criticize the cushy political deal that enriched Lager and delivered a subpar education to thousands of students.

When the State Auditor Dave Yost (who had received campaign gifts from Lager) conducted an audit, ECOT could not account for students it claimed. ECOT said in court that a student should be counted even if they didn’t get any instruction. The state tried to “claw back” $80 million for only the last two years of ECOT’s operation, ECOT chose to go bankrupt instead. Since 2001, ECOT has collected over $1 billion from the state of Ohio, all of it money that was subtracted from the state’s public schools, but ended up instead in the pockets of Lager and his friends in high political office.

What is striking is how little it cost to buy the Republicans! For a few thousand dollars in campaign contributions, they let this guy take hundreds of millions away from public schools.

Here are some examples of ECOT pay for protection from accountability:

see here.

Andrew Brenner, chair of the House Education Committee (who says public education is “socialism”) was a Lager favorite. He didn’t “take a dime” from ECOT, but he took lots of dimes from Lager.

Kasich has received over $30,000 for his campaigns from Lager, along with key legislative leaders. Kasich gave the ECOT commencement speech in 2011.

The state auditor got Lager cash and spoke three times at ECOT graduation ceremonies. Jeb Bush gave the commencement address to ECOT graduates in 2010.

Here is the most recent list of the candidates who received campaign gifts from Lager.

This is the background of the names on this list:

Looking at the list, here are the backgrounds of the top five individuals in the order that they appear.

1. Cheryl Grossman, former Ohio House Majority Whip
2. William Batchelder, former Ohio House Speaker who later became a lobbyist for Lager and other charters https://janresseger.wordpress.com/2015/02/27/ohios-term-limited-house-speaker-becomes-lobbyist-for-notorious-charter-operator/
3. Matt Huffman, currently Ohio state senator
4. Barbara Sears, former Ohio House Majority Floor Leader
5. Jim Buchy, former Ohio House member

Other noteworthy pols on the list include
Jon Husted, Secretary of State now running for Lieutenant Governor
Cliff Rosenberger, former Ohio House Speaker who went on an all-expense trip paid by the Niagara Foundation, part of the Gulen chain. His home was raided by the FBI just two months ago! https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/fbi-agents-are-rosenberger-house-and-storage-unit/u8X9Apyx9g3rs0u63n3mBL/
Josh Mandel, Ohio Treasurer
Andrew Brenner, Chair, House Education Committee currently running for Ohio Senate
Shannon Jones, former Ohio senator and author of the notorious SB5, which was designed to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights. http://action.weareohio.com/page/content/sb5history/
Mike Dewine, currently Ohio Attorney General and candidate for Governor (running with Jon Husted – above)
Mary Taylor, currently Ohio Lieutenant Governor – defeated by DeWine in the Republican primary in May)
Dave Yost, currently Ohio Auditor of State now running for Attorney General. COULDN’T MAKE THIS ONE UP – Yost gave ECOT an Excellence in Bookeeping Award in 2016. He also was an ECOT commencement speaker: https://ohiodems.org/today-ohio-history-dave-yost-gives-ecot-third-award-bookkeeping-2016/
Troy Balderson, currently member of Ohio House and candidate for Congress.

Jan Resseger brings the story up to date in this post.

Here is how the Ohio Supreme Court hearing—five months ago today—concluded, according to the Columbus Dispatch‘s Jim Siegel: “As ECOT attorney Marion Little finished his arguments for why, under the law, the online school should get full funding for students even if they only log in once a month and do no work, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor interjected. ‘How is that not absurd?’”

Now, you would think that by now the Ohio Supreme Court could have arrived at a decision on ECOT’s final appeal to stay in business—a case in which lower courts had found against ECOT at every level. But as citizens of Ohio, we await ECOT’s death without any kind of closure even though we all know that the school has already been shut down—totally. The school’s assets have been sold off in a widely publicized auction and it no longer provides services for students. The Supreme Court decision matters, because ECOT’s officials hope—if the Supreme Court finds for ECOT—the school wouldn’t be required to repay as many tax dollars and because the same officials say they hope to resurrect the school.

In just the past month, as we await the high court’s decision, and the state remains mired in the ECOT scandal: here are some things we’ve been learning.

For the Associated Press, Kantele Franko reports that 2,300 of ECOT’s supposed students are apparently unaccounted for. Nobody knows whether they have dropped out or left the state or perhaps re-enrolled someplace else. Franko explains that a thousand of the students were likely 18 years of age or older, but that 1,300 were school-age youngsters who ought to be considered truant if they are not re-enrolled. Franko quotes Peggy Lehner, chair of the Ohio Senate Education Committee: “I think this just illustrates the whole problem that we’ve had with ECOT… You not only can’t tell how long the students signed on, you can’t even tell for sure if they even exist, so I am not surprised that there are students that they can’t track.” So far, however, the Ohio Legislature hasn’t passed any new laws to better regulate attendance at Ohio’s e-schools.

Thousands of ECOT’s students, at least those who are actual people, have enrolled at another virtual school in the state.

The primary beneficiary of ECOT’s closure and of this new law is Ohio Virtual Academy, a for-profit online school that took in 4,000 ECOT students mid-year. That boosted its enrollment more than 40 percent, along with its income and potential profit. With 12,000 students, the school is now Ohio’s online giant, replacing the mammoth ECOT.” Ohio Virtual Academy is the state’s affiliate of the notorious K12, Inc., a national, for-profit, online-charter empire. The legislation to protect schools serving students abandoned when ECOT closed was added quietly as an amendment to another bill just before the Legislature adjourned for summer break, and was opposed by several prominent Democrats. O’Donnell quotes Toledo Representative Teresa Fedor, the ranking Democrat on the House Education Committee: “Children move in and out of schools because of choice every day. It’s outrageous that Ohio taxpayers have to foot more profits for e-schools and then give them safe harbor.”

To add to the comedy/tragedy, Ohio’s State Attorney General Mike DeWine has suddenly decided it is time to go after Lager and try to recover millions. DeWine is running for governor. The current Governor, John Kasich, protected ECOT for years, as did DeWine.

What everybody wonders is why DeWine, who has been Ohio Attorney General since 2011, only decided to go after ECOT now in the summer of 2018—as he, Ohio’s 2018 Republican candidate for governor, actively campaigns. DeWine claims to have waited until another case set a precedent for cracking down on such conflicts of interest involving a charter school—this time a smaller charter school in Cincinnati. Now, says Mike DeWine, he can be assured that as the State Attorney General he has standing to crack down on charter school fraud.

Clearly, the ECOT scandal has become hot potato for Republican candidates seeking state office in the November 2018 election. Democrats across the state, reminding the public of William Lager’s huge political investments in Republican campaigns over the years, are also reminding voters that key Republicans including Mike DeWine—currently attorney general and Ohio’s Republican gubernatorial candidate in November, and Dave Yost—currently state auditor and Ohio’s Republican candidate for attorney general in November, have been ignoring for years Lager’s compromised position as the founder and agent of nonprofit ECOT who is also making huge profits by steering business to his own for-profit contractors.

Will Ohio’s voters remember in November that the state Republican party enabled Lager to shift $1 billion from their public schools to ECOT?

Categories Education Reform, For-Profit, Fraud, Virtual Charter Schools

“Democracy”: The Attack on Our Democracy, Hidden in Plain Sight

By dianeravitch
July 15, 2018 //
83

A blogger who identifies as “democracy” posted this comment, with which I agree.


The bottom line is that Trump has lots and lots of Russian “mob” money, in Russia, the mob and the state are one and the same.

Trump has tapped tons of Russian moola, which is one reason he’s refused to release his tax returns, and in all likelihood, why Republicans in Congress refuse to force their release. Those returns would prove definitively the financial ties. But even without them, the ties have been well-established. The Financial Times did a deep look into the building of the Trump Tower in Toronto:

“Legal documents, signed statements and two dozen interviews with people with knowledge of the project and the money that flowed through it reveal that the venture connects the US president with a shadowy post-Soviet world where politics and personal enrichment merge…”

“it has become increasingly clear that many of the oligarchs who made their riches amid the downfall of the Soviet Union have protected their fortunes by advancing the interests of the ruling cliques at home. This wealth has been coursing through western markets, often disguised by shell companies. Trump’s sector, real estate, has long been susceptible to infusions of incognito money. A large proportion of sales of high-end US property takes place through companies whose true owners are hidden. A US Treasury investigation last year found that one in three cash buyers of top-end property was suspicious…”

“Trump has broken with presidential tradition by refusing to divest his holdings in the dozens of companies that comprise the Trump Organization or to release tax returns that might shine more light on what appear to be multitudinous conflicts of interest. In May last year, his decision to fire James Comey as head of the FBI triggered the appointment of Robert Mueller, himself a former FBI chief, as special counsel to investigate links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.”

https://www.ft.com/trumptoronto

Look, it’s clear. This is not hard to figure out. There was a very genuine royal screwing of the American Republic in November of 2016. Trump and the Trump campaign engaged in behavior that has to be called what it really is: treason. There’s no way around it. And while Trump and his tops dogs are directly responsible, there’s lots of blame to pass around. Charlie Pierce at Esquire calls it perfectly:

“Goddamn them all.”

“Goddamn the hackers. Goddamn the journalists who laundered the pilfered material. Goddamn any of them who treated Roger Stone as a source, or as a cute prankster, instead of the nasty vandal he’s always been. Goddamn the pundits who chortled over the pilfered material. Goddamn the politicians who profited from the hacking. Goddamn the politicians who minimized the hacking. Goddamn the politicians who still stonewall about the hacking. Goddamn the ‘activists’ who ranted about ‘McCarthyism’ when anybody pointed out that the 2016 presidential election had been poisoned from afar. Goddamn them all as traitors, if not to the American nation, then to everything that ever made that nation worth the bother.”

“They conspired, wittingly or unwittingly. They colluded, wittingly or unwittingly. They are accessories, before and after the fact, to the hijacking of a democratic election. So, yes, goddamn them all.”

And you know what? There are still people out there – hell, there are still commenters on this bog – who pretend to be unaware of just how serious this is, or worse, who purposefully turn a blind eye to it.

It’s going to get worse – and much weirder – before it gets better.

Gee. Maybe we should give some serous thought – when this is mostly over, if it ever really is – to the notion that public education in a democratic republic ought to teach and model the core values and principles on which the republic is based.

Goddamn us if we don’t.

Categories Accountability, Democracy, Fraud

North Carolina: NEPC With More About Analysis of That Amateurish, Cooked Voucher Study

By dianeravitch
July 15, 2018 //
1

I have posted two critiques of the North Carolina voucher study that claimed great gains for students who took vouchers to learn that dinosaurs and humans co-existed.

Here is another, which is probably definitive and all you need to know. It was posted by the National Education Policy Center.


An evaluation of an education program typically gives some information about whether or not a program is working. But a recent evaluation of North Carolina’s school voucher program is so flawed methodologically that it fails to explain whether the state’s Opportunity Scholarships help or harm a student’s education, according to a review by Kris Nordstrom, an education policy consultant on the Education and Law Project at the North Carolina Justice Center, a social justice-focused research and advocacy organization.

Nordstrom’s review is part of a new NEPC feature called Reviews Worth Sharing, which are not commissioned or edited by NEPC but that we believe contribute to our goal of helping policymakers, reporters, and others assess the social science merit of reports and judge their value in guiding policy. The views and conclusions addressed belong entirely to the author.

The evaluation reviewed, An Impact Analysis of North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship Program on Student Achievement, is a working paper by North Carolina State researchers Anna J. Egalite, D.T. Stallings, and Stephen R. Porter.

The review finds that methodological flaws in the evaluation make it impossible to accurately compare North Carolina private school students who receive the vouchers with their public school counterparts who do not. It is also possible that the private school students who participated in the analysis were not representative of the average voucher student. That’s because the working paper only examined a small, non-random handful of voucher students (89 individuals, or 1.6 percent of all voucher recipients) who volunteered to be tested for the evaluation. In addition, just over half of the private schools attended by these 89 recipients were Catholic. Yet only 10 percent of all North Carolina voucher schools are Catholic.

The evaluation did use a statistical method called propensity-score matching to create a public school comparison group that was designed to be similar to the pool of private school volunteers. However, Nordstrom identifies five main flaws with this comparison:

The private school students who volunteered to participate in the evaluation were recruited by a pro-voucher advocacy organization, Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina. The evaluation does not clarify to what extent, if any, the organization cherry-picked the volunteers or their schools.

The public school students likely came from lower-income families than the voucher recipients. Evaluation authors said that they accounted for this difference by incorporating prior year’s test results into the analysis. But that assumes that income differences did not impact performance in the ensuing school year.

The public school students likely attended schools with higher poverty rates than the private school students would have been attending, absent the vouchers. Again, evaluation authors said that they accounted for this difference by incorporating prior year’s test results into the analysis, but that (again) assumes that the differences did not impact performance in the ensuing school year.

It is possible that the public and private school students had different levels of motivation when taking the test. While voucher recipients might have perceived that their performance could impact their ability to remain in their private schools, the public school students likely viewed the exam as a meaningless exercise.

The test used in the evaluation was not aligned to North Carolina’s Standard Course of Study. If it was aligned more closely with the private schools’ curricula, that could give the voucher recipients an advantage.

North Carolina’s voucher program is scheduled to grow by $10 million per year, to $144.8 million in 2027-28.
Yet as Nordstrom concludes:

North Carolina General Assembly lawmakers are about to conclude yet another legislative session without implementing meaningful evaluation and accountability measures on state voucher programs. Despite the N.C. State report, unfettered expansion of vouchers continues, and policymakers, educators, and parents still don’t know whether the program is working or not.

Categories Fraud, National Education Policy Center, North Carolina, Research, Vouchers

Pennsylvania: Accountant Sentenced to Prison for Helping Cyber Charter Founder Evade Taxes

By dianeravitch
July 11, 2018 //
11

A former certified public accountant who helped hide the tax evasion by the leader of Pennsylvania’s first cyber charter was sentenced to prison for a year and a day.

The founder of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, Nicholas Trombetta, will be sentenced later this month.

Trombetta scammed $8 million and didn’t pay taxes. By some fluke in the law, he was not charged with theft of public’s money, but only with failing to pay taxes on the money he stole.

The school was the state’s first cyber charter. It had 10,000 students, each producing a revenue of $10,000 to the school. That’s $100 million, just lying around. What was Trombetta to do with all that dough?

Don’t you think the legislature might reconsider the need for regulation and oversight of these sweet deals? No accountability, no transparency, no supervision. Just lots of money.

Categories Fraud, Pennsylvania, Virtual Charter Schools

Indiana: Shift to Privatization Rife with Fraud and Abuse of Taxpayer Dollars

By dianeravitch
July 10, 2018 //
9

Imagine if you can, an “online agricultural school” for grades 7-12, where students might occasionally visit a farm, but such visits are not mandatory.

The Fort Wayne Jounal-Gazette, one of Indiana’s best newspapers, wrote an editorial with this example of the wastefulness of school privatization. The editorial was prompted by the NPE-Schott Foundation National Report on privatization. Indiana received a well-deserved grade of F.

The editorial says:

“Indiana’s friendly environment for education privatizers is summed up nicely by an audacious attempt to open an online agriculture charter school for students in grades 7-12. Billing the model as a “real virtual school,” organizers initially said the statewide school would offer occasional farm visits, but they wouldn’t be mandatory.

“The idea of an agriculture program taught entirely online seems ludicrous only if you don’t see the profit potential. Virtual schools are eligible to collect 90 percent of the basic tuition grant for each student enrolled, so the Indiana Agriculture & Technology School – with 100 students now enrolled – was set to collect about $460,000 a year, with limited expenses for instruction, textbooks or equipment. Fortunately, scrutiny of another Indiana virtual school seems to have pushed the state to demand some classes be taught face-to-face. Monthly visits to a Morgan County farm and as little as four hours of computer instruction a day suggest the school won’t be any more successful than the four F-rated online schools now serving about 13,000 Hoosier students, however.

“Indiana’s dismal record for oversight of online charter schools is one reason it earned its own failing grade in a report evaluating the extent to which states divert money from traditional public schools to private schools and charter schools operated by for-profit management companies. The survey, by the Network for Public Education and the Schott Foundation, which might be easily dismissed as biased except that its findings are irrefutable, notes:

• Indiana has three separate programs designed to funnel tax dollars from public schools, at a conservative estimate of $171 million a year. “Indiana law has continued to morph over the years so that prior enrollment in a public school is no longer needed to receive a voucher for private school,” wrote Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education. “That means that taxpayers are now funding private school tuition previously paid for by parents.”

• Private schools receiving tax dollars are allowed to discriminate against students for whom English is not their first language by not providing services and can discriminate in enrollment on the basis of religion. “It is a system in which the school, not the parent, does the choosing.” Burris wrote in an email.

• Failing charter schools have been allowed to convert to voucher schools, so that they can “continue indefinitely,” Burris wrote.”

Read it all.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Fraud, Indiana, Privatization, Virtual Charter Schools

Nevada: Time to Close Down the Worst, Least Accountable Charter Schools in America

By dianeravitch
July 9, 2018 //
4

Charter schools in Nevada are a national joke. They can fail and fail and fail, and the state doesn’t care. For charter schools, there is no accountability. CREDO Director Macke Raymond said at a national Education Writers Association meeting in 2015, directing her remarks to Ohions, who spend $1 billion annually on charters: “Be very glad that you have Nevada, so you are not the worst.” (https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/03/ohios_charter_schools_ridicule.html)

Clark County first grade teacher Angie Sullivan recently wrote to legislators and journalists:

We need to close the DeVos Charter.

Not in February. Now.

DeVos proclaimed Nevada Virtual Academy an example of success. A direct lie.

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/02/04/513220220/betsy-devos-graduation-rate-mistake

On June 25, the Charter Authority will openly discuss revoking that charter.

Click to access 180625-Notice.pdf

Flooding Nevada with K-12 ads. The for-profit charter proclaimed a success by DeVos while huge number of Nevada Virtual students are not participating, scoring well, or graduating.

Empty threats given on Governor letterhead. Who is accountable for this extreme mess?

Nothing done.

Nevada Virtual Academy is not scared of being closed. Nevada does not close failing charters or even demand regular academic data. Charters will continue to take tax payer money without being accountable. Creating the largest alternative lowest of the low performing school system in the state and possibly the nation.

______________________________

We need an Nevada Charter audit.

Given Nevada’s total disregard for charter school accountability. We are an example to the nation of the extreme distinction which occurs without any accountability.

On-line charters in particular have questionable practices.

Are students actually enrolled? When looking at on-line numbers, how can so many students be supposedly enrolled in on-line instruction but not be taking high stakes testing?

The numbers are telling. We pay. Students do not test. Students do not graduate. Those who do test are scoring lower than everyone else.

Perhaps on-line charters should only be paid for the handful of students actually participating. The tax payer should be concerned. Millions being paid for on-line student learning and it is highly questionable.

An audit should be demanded.

—————————————

Half the Nevada Charters need to be closed. If they are floundering in financial and academic failure, close them. And all campuses need to return and report, not in clumps, site by site.

Zero Failing Nevada Charters have been closed. Not even those without funds to continue – floundering in receivership and demanding money to continue in bankrupt dysfunction. Nevada throwing good money after bad. The tax payer should be disgusted with $350 million in Nevada Charter School waste.

No accountability.

No transparency.

________________________

We should all be disgusted by our political leaders.

One set of rigorous standards for Nevada Public Schools which are ironically turned into charters. Why is that a good idea? The data shows tax payer money will be misused by Nevada Charters. Nevada Charters are a national disgrace. Find a state with worse charters than Nevada. I dare you.

Thank you Nevada politicians and legislators present and former who are heavy advocates on both sides for this embarrassing disgrace. Many hold positions on charter board and groups. You are failures.

Politicians, you have made this incredible mess. I suggest you act quickly to find a remedy. I’m worried this is criminal and your fingerprints are all over it.

The Teacher,

Angie

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Failure, For-Profit, Fraud, Nevada, Privatization

Florida: Owner of Nursing Home Where 12 Died Is Opening a Charter School

By dianeravitch
July 6, 2018 //
16

Which state is the Wild West of chartering? No accountability, anyone can get public dollars, no experience needed.

Some say Arizona. Some say Michigan. Right now, I’d say it is Florida.

Read this horrible story.

After 12 elderly patients died during Hurricane Irma at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills in Hollywood last September, South Floridians were not stunned to learn that the doctor who owned the facility, Jack Michel, had a history of fraud complaints. As WPLG’s Bob Norman noted last November, nothing stopped Michel — who owns the Larkin Community Hospital network — from opening a nursing home after previously paying a $15.4 million federal fine to settle Medicare and Medicaid fraud claims in 2007. Since then, several Larkin doctors also have been criminally charged with fraud.

But since the deadly incident, which inspired new statewide regulations, sparked a criminal probe, and got the Rehabilitation Center’s license suspended, Michel hasn’t stopped pitching new business ideas. His latest move? Opening a charter school.

According to the Biscayne Times, Michel owns the historic Admiral Vee Motel building at 8000 Biscayne Blvd., a striking MiMo-style structure that film producers used as the Sun Gym in the 2013 Mark Wahlberg and the Rock movie Pain & Gain. The building has been in a state of disrepair for years, with busted windows, water damage and homeless people sleeping under the breezeways. Last March, the Biscayne Times chronicled how Michel had let the once-gleaming property decay.

But recently, someone has slapped spiffy new signs on the side of the building advertising the “Larkin School for the Health Sciences,” a charter school serving kids from grades 6 through 8. The signs say the school will open in next month.

A New Times reporter visited the facility on Wednesday, and the building is still missing windows and strewn with garbage. But the school published a press release last February asking parents to apply to send their children, and job-postings on the website Glassdoor show the school looking for a principal just 12 days ago.

This is disgusting. Betsy DeVos would approve. If parents apply to send their child, well, that’s all good.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Florida, Fraud

Memphis: Charter High School Under Investigation for Grade-Changing, Uncertified Teachers, Other Irregularities

By dianeravitch
July 5, 2018 //
14

In Memphis, a whistleblower who was fired and two anonymous teachers called attention to unethical practices at a charter high school. The school is now under investigation.

“Three people who worked at a Memphis charter high school are alleging that the administration falsified grades, improperly employed uncertified teachers, gave credits for a class that did not exist, and pulled students out of class to clean the building.

“Marquez Elem, the school’s director of operations until he was terminated this month, and two former teachers made the claims against Gateway University High School in interviews with Chalkbeat. The teachers asked not to be named because they did not want to be associated with the school, and both said they were not returning to Gateway because their contracts as long-term substitutes were not renewed.

“Chalkbeat contacted Sosepriala Dede, the leader of the year-old, 100-student charter school, with a list of questions detailing the allegations. Dede’s response, sent through a public relations firm, described school efforts to ensure proper grading and stated that Gateway employed “qualified” teachers this past school year, but did not directly address all of the claims…

“Elem said he was asked by Dede to change student grades on multiple occasions without a teacher’s knowledge or against their wishes. Elem said that he did not change grades himself but did ask teachers to do so.

“One former teacher who asked not to be named said: “When I finished up my grades, I called Mr. Dede and said that kids were failing. He told me to go back in and change the grades. [I changed] all my grades so kids were passing.”

“This comes as Shelby County Schools faces multiple allegations of grade changing in its high schools. The results of a deeper probe of seven high schools with high numbers of grade changes on transcripts is expected this month…

“Elem said the school also struggled to retain certified or licensed teachers, meaning teachers that are approved by the state, hold a bachelor’s degree, and have completed an approved Tennessee teacher preparation program.

The school had to rely on long-term substitutes, some of which did not have teaching licenses, Elem and sources said. According to state law, a substitute teacher who is teaching for more than 20 consecutive days must be licensed.

“There were only three certified staff in the building,” said Elem, who added that the school had about nine full-time staff in total. “At least four more needed licenses [to do their jobs legally] and did not have them. There were six different English teachers over the course of the year, and only one was certified. Eventually, we had a long-term sub teaching English.”

“Elem provided Chalkbeat with a staff list for Gateway, and according to the state’s database of educator licenses, three of the provided names were not identified as having a license. Elem also does not have a license.

“Gateway also struggled to retain a World History teacher and eventually hired an uncertified long-term substitute for that class, according to Elem and the teachers who spoke to Chalkbeat. They claim the World History sub worked seven months, and a substitute for English worked three months…

“The two former teachers who spoke with Chalkbeat, in addition to Elem, said students were occasionally pulled out of class to help clean bathrooms, hallways, and classrooms. Elem attributed some students’ poor grades to their being pulled from classes, and asked to clean other classrooms.

“Asked to comment on allegations made by former Gateway employees that the school didn’t employ a janitorial staff, Dede said: “Gateway University’s state-of-the-art facility is maintained by building engineering experts and janitorial service providers to ensure the cleanliness of our school building. It’s also not uncommon for our students to assist in cleaning their classrooms, along with their teachers. We are a small, tight-knit school, and this affords us the opportunity to do things in a unique yet efficient way.”

“Dede did not respond to questions asking him to specify the name of the janitorial service or when the service was hired….

“Seven Gateway students were enrolled in a geometry class that was not offered, Elem said.

“Elem said the school never had a geometry teacher, so the students enrolled in a general freshman math class called geometry “received credit for a class that didn’t exist.”

Ah, the joys of deregulation and autonomy!

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Fraud, Memphis, Privatization
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